Congressmen never hesitate to impress upon the Untouchables that Mr. Gandhi is their saviour, Not only do Congressmen all over India hold out Mr. Gandhi as a real saviour but they go forth to persuade the Untouchables to accept the fact that he is their only saviour. When pressed for evidence, they tell the Untouchables that if any one ever took a vow to go on a fast unto death for the sake of the Untouchables it was Mr. Gandhi and none else. Indeed, without any compunction they teil the Untouchables that whatever political rights the Untouchables have got under the Poona Pact, they are the result of Mr. Gandhi’s efforts. As an illustration of such propaganda, I refer to what one Rai Bahadur Mehrachand Khanna is reported to have said at a meeting of the Untouchables held at Peshwar on April 12, 1945, under the auspices of the Depressed Classes League:
“Your best friend is Mahatma Gandhi who even resorted to a fast for your sake and brought about the Poona Pact under which you have been enfranchised and given representation on local bodies and legislatures. Some of you, I know, have been running after Dr. Ambedkar, who is just a creation of the British Imperialists and who uses you to strengthen the hands of the Government in order that India may be divided and the Britishers continue to retain power. I appeal to you in your interests, to distinguish between self-styled leaders and your real friends.”
If I refer to the statement of Rai Bahadur Mehrachand Khanna, it is not because he is worth taking notice of. For, there cannot be any one guilty of bigger blackguardism in Indian politics than this man. In the course of one year not in very remote time but in 1944-he successfully played three different roles. He started as Secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, turned agent of British Imperialism, went abroad to explain India’s war effort to the British and American people and is now agent of the Congress in N.W.F Province. The opinion of a man like Rai Bahadur Khanna, who, to use Dryden’s language, is so various as to be everything by starts, and nothing long, and who in the course of one revolving moon can be chemist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon must be beneath contempt. If I refer to him it is only because I wish to illustrate what sort of propaganda friends of mr. Gandhi are carrying on in order to beguile the Untouchables.
I do not know how many Untouchables will be found prepared to swallow such a lie. But this much I think has been proved by the Nazis that if a lie is a big lie too big for the common man’s intelligence to scrutinize and if it is repeated continuously, the lie has all the chances of being accepted as truth, and if not accepted as truth has all the chances of growing upon the victims of propaganda and win their acquiescence. It is, therefore, necessary for me to expose the part played by Mr. Gandhi in the movement of the Untouchables and to warn the Untouchables against succumbing to this propaganda (P. 42 to 44)
(Gandhi & Gandhism, Bhim Patrika Prakashan, Nakodar Rd., Jalandhar, Punjab)
